EL CAJON  A handyman convicted of fatally beating a Santee woman last year after he learned she didn’t want to date him anymore was sentenced Monday to 16 years to life in prison.

Paul Carl Tomasini, 65, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder in connection with the slaying of Mary Louise Shojai, 66, a longtime employee at San Diego State University who had served for years as director of student disability services.

She suffered more than 17 blunt-force injuries to her head, prosecutors said.

During an emotionally charged sentencing hearing in El Cajon Superior Court, family members and friends expressed sorrow and anger over Shojai’s death, and in particular the way in which she was killed. Just three months shy of retirement, Shojai was attacked from behind by Tomasini, whom she had trusted and tried to help, they said.

Tomasini attended church with Shojai on Sept. 30, then killed her later the same day.

“He murdered a glorious woman in cold blood,” said Mina Moynehan, who talked about how hard her mother worked for her family and for the disabled students for whom she was an advocate.

Moynehan, a married mother of two boys, said her mother should have died at age 105 with her children and grandchildren around her, like Shojai’s own father did earlier this year.

“Instead, she died scared on the floor at the hands of a demon,” Moynehan said.

The victim’s son, David Shojai, called Tomasini a “coward and a weak, pathetic individual.”

“What kind of animal murders a grandmother?” he said.

Tomasini apologized in court through a statement read by his lawyer, Jane Kinsey.

Deputy District Attorney Amy Colby has said that Shojai and Tomasini had been dating for about three years before the killing. Shojai had indicated she was planning to break up with the defendant, and on Sept. 30 they got into an argument.

When Shojai didn’t show up at the airport that night to pick up a friend, the friend became concerned and eventually went to the victim’s home to check on her.

The friend saw Tomasini pacing back and forth inside the house on Strathmore Drive. She called Shojai’s phone and the defendant picked up.

He refused to put Shojai on the phone, and the friend called 911, the prosecutor said.

Sheriff’s Department investigators found Shojai in the house, lying face down in a pool of blood. They found two candlesticks in the home and a broken wooden mallet.

Tomasini had wounds that were not considered life-threatening.

Several of the defendant’s family members were also in court Monday, and when speaking to the judge, they expressed tearful condolences to Shojai’s family. His son and daughter also explained that their father had suffered from severe mental illness — anxiety and depression — for most of his life.

The defendant’s daughter said she hoped her father would finally receive the mental health care in prison that he had often been denied because he was uninsured or underinsured.